TV News

Ratings Rat Race: How Networks Fared After Sandy

With the clean-up of Hurricane Sandy underway, the networks tried to keep programming as scheduled. And so they did, with a whole slew of primetime players putting up new episodes on Tuesday after a mostly re-airings filled Monday. With the numbers in, we can start to see the size of the superstorm's impact in the ratings.

NBC

NBC won the night out of all the networks, thanks in part to The Voice. The show actually had an uptick on its numbers—taking in a 4.6 in the adults demographic—up seven percent from last week's. Though it wasn't all business as usual, as comedies Go On and The New Normal were preempted for news on the storm at 10PM, pulling a 2.9. Overall, the peacock averaged a 4.0 rating with adults 18-49—about 10.8 million viewers.

CBS

Coming up behind NBC was CBS, who returned with all new episodes of NCIS, NCIS:LA, and Vegas, which scored a 3.4, a 2.8, and a 1.7 rating, respectively. NCIS and Vegas both bellied up with an additional six percent over last week's numbers, whereas NCIS:LA stayed the same. And while the network topped everyone when it comes to total viewers (15.1 million), they placed second in the adults demographic with a 2.6 rating.

FOX

Coming in third, FOX seems to have taken a bit of a hit to its Tuesday night comedy line-up. While Raising Hope and Ben and Kate stayed the same numbers-wise compared to last week (earning a 1.7 and a 1.4, respectively), New Girl and The Mindy Project took some hits. The Zooey Deschanel-fronted New Girl fell 15 percent, ending up with a 2.3 rating, while Mindy Kaling and Co. came back from their extra-long hiatus to fall nearly a quarter of the way—21 percent of the way, actually, to land with a 1.5 rating in that all-important adult demographic. For the evening, FOX averaged a 1.7 rating with 3.8 million viewers.

ABC

And the last-picked for the dodgeball game (aww, cheer up, ABC), the alphabet network came in last with ratings down across all of its primetime shows: Dancing With the Stars fell to a series low of a 1.9 rating among the 18-49ers. Happy Endings and Apt. 23 slipped the worst of the bunch, with a fall of 22 and 29 percent respectively, to bring their ratings down to 1.4 and 1.2 adults rating each. Similarly to NBC, ABC News air a special, Sandy-centric broadcast of 20/20, which earned a 1.3 rating, giving the network a total average of 1.5 in the adults rating with 6.9 million viewers.

Could it be that Sandy had little-to-no-effect at all on the ratings, or are everyone on the east coast primarily FOX and ABC viewers? The answer may lie in next week's ratings for the same shows, once (hopefully!) electricity is fully-restored to the regions affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Are you surprised about last night's numbers? Sound off in the comments!